Author(s):
Larry ReedSabina Rogers

The Microcredit Summit Campaign's 17th annual survey of the global microfinance industry, "Mapping Pathways out of Poverty," reports that, for third year in a row, the number of poorest borrowers has decreased while total outreach has continued to grow. The report underscores the challenge microfinance faces in realizing its original goal -- to alleviate poverty by providing quality microfinance services to the poorest segments of society.

"Mapping Pathways out of Poverty" makes the case for the scale-up of financial services "pathways" that can reach the extreme poor with prescriptive actions for financial service providers, government policymakers, and others to advance the end of extreme poverty. Specifically, these "Six Pathways" are, 1) Integrated health and microfinance, 2) Savings groups, 3) Graduation programs, 4) Agricultural value chains, 5) Conditional cash transfers, and 6) Digital finance.

This report looks closely at each of these pathways and the ways that financial service providers can work within them. It also focuses on the key role of mapping, an often overlooked step, in identifying where people living in extreme poverty reside and congregate, and what channels and linkages can provide the best routes for serving them.